Michael Frost is fascinated by the use of language and is especially interested in the study of legal discourse. He has written extensively on the rhetorical works of Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian. In his view, Greco-Roman rhetorical treatises contain the most comprehensive, adaptable and practical analysis of legal discourse ever devised. Professor Frost is also the author of a book and several articles on modern judicial rhetoric. SCRIBES, a national organization of legal writers and educators, has honored him for his excellence and high attainments in meritorious
writing.

"Writing is not the only way of discovering what it is you think...but it is the best way of discovering how to say what it is you think."

Professor Frost joined the Southwestern faculty in 1979
after teaching at the State University of New York for several years. As a teacher of legal writing and as an advisor to the Southwestern
Law Review,
Professor Frost emphasizes the close relationship between writing style
and legal analysis. He points out, "Writing is not the only way of
discovering what it is you think...but it is the best way of
discovering how to say what it is you think." In 2006, he was named as Southwestern's Irwin
R. Buchalter Professor.

Professor Frost has served as a legal writing consultant for over 18 years for the National Judicial College, where he teaches judicial opinion writing. He has also taught opinion writing to judges in Arkansas, California, Idaho, Massachusetts, Oregon, Nevada, Washington, and West Virginia. He has been a featured speaker at the Legal Writing Institute, the annual Conference of the Modern Language Association and the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

Books and Chapters

Introduction to Classical Legal Rhetoric and Brief Rhetoric - A Note on Classical & Modern Theories of Forensic Discourse in READINGS IN PERSUASION: BRIEFS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (L. Edwards, ed.; Wolters Kluwer, 2012)

Greco-Roman Rhetoric: The Canon and Its History in CICERO AND MODERN LAW (Ashgate Publishing, 2009)

Context, Organization and Style in Administrative Law Decisions in NJC DESKBOOK ON EVIDENCE FOR ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGES (National Judicial College Press, 2006)

Ethos, Pathos and Legal Audience in ARISTOTLE AND MODERN LAW 583 (Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2003)

Articles

With Amici Like These: Cicero, Quintilian and the Importance of Stylistic Demeanor, 3 JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION OF LEGAL WRITING DIRECTORS 5 (2006)

Rhetorical Question: What Would Aristotle Make of Scalia? in LEGAL AFFAIRS (A Magazine of the Yale Law School, November/December 2003)